大象传媒

This story was submitted by a volunteer from Age Concern Dorchester on behalf of Mary Martin and has been added to the site with her permission.

My mother and I met Uncle Vidalis at Paddington Station on March 28th, 1945 to catch a train to Dawlish, Devon. We had been invited to spend Easter with Arthur Page and family. Trains in those days were packed and we missed getting a seat because I had spent too long doing my hair in the Ladies Cloakroom. So the journey got off to a bad start with everyone sitting on cases in the corridor. Just before departure, a young army officer ran along the platform frantically looking for a space. Mummy said to me in Greek, our mother tongue, 鈥淒on鈥檛 let him in, we鈥檝e hardly any room to move鈥� I replied 鈥淚 can鈥檛 push him out鈥� In any case he looked rather nice! So in he got and, of course, we got talking.

He told me he鈥檇 had to rush back home in a taxi to get his 10 day leave pass, that鈥檚 why he had cut it so fine.. He should have caught a much earlier train! A little later he took out a book to read. Some time passed when I took a peek to see what he was reading and noticed he was holding it upside down! He looked shyly round at me and smiled. I said something stupid like 鈥淵ou are clever, do you always read books upside down?鈥� We laughed. We exchanged names. His name was Kenneth Martin. I told him mine was Erato Maria Nita Connidis, but he could call me Mary. I said we were going to stay with friends near Dawlish. Needless to say we started a friendship then and there. So much so that Ken left the train at Dawlish along with us and didn鈥檛 carry on to Ilfracombe as stamped on his ticket. Our friends wondered who the young officer was 鈥� was he with us? My poor embarrassed mother had to explain that he was on leave and planned to stay in Dawlish so he could see me while I was in Devon. I don鈥檛 think our hosts were very amused!

Ken and I met every morning and spent some happy days together. One day we went to Teignmouth and took out a rowing boat. Ken painted the rocks and sea at low tide. I also did alittle sketching. Another day, we cycled round the lanes. We stopped at a farmhouse and asked the farmer's wife if she would serve us tea. In 50 years we never forgot that fanastic farmhouse tea - the best we had had since before the war. The evening before I was due to go home, with the permission of my mother and host, Ken took me to dine at a very nice hotel in Teignmouth.

On April 5, Ken travelled back with us intending to spend a day and the following night at our cottage in Cowley before returning to his parents home and then back to duty the following Monday. When we arrived at Paddington Station, Ken phoned his parents in Finchley and asked if he could take me there for the weekend to meet them. We had a very nice weekend. His parents were charming. On Sunday evening, we said our fond farewells, as by this time we were falling in love.

We corresponded a lot. On April 24, less than a month after we had met, I received a letter from Ken asking me to marry him. I had a heart-to-heart talk with my mother to whom I was very close and who was a war widow herself. She asked me if I really felt a deep love for Ken and that it was not just a strong infatuation as I was still young. I was absolutely certain that Ken was the man I really wanted as a husband and with whom I wanted to spend the rest of my life. I accepted his proposal. Through our letters we planned our wedding on June 9 at St Lawrence Church in Cowley, near Uxbridge. Unfortunately, the War Office had other plans for my Ken!

On May 7, I was suffering from a very sore throat and was at home in bed feeling grim. At 5.45pm my colleague arrived after work with an urgent message from Ken 鈥� "Would like to marry you tomorrow the 8th. Arriving late tonight. Expect to be sent overseas very soon鈥� I was horror stuck. There I was in bed with a very painful throat, no wedding dress, no ring, in fact no preparations except a special license obtained in preparation for the planned wedding in June. My first reaction was 鈥淣o鈥� with capital letters. I couldn鈥檛 possibly get married feeling so awful. But my dear friend, Betty Francis, rushed off to get some penicillin chewing gum (her father was on the staff at St Mary鈥檚 Hospital, Paddington), borrowed a friend's bridesmaid dress and her mother's white prayer book and stayed overnight to get things ready. What a brick and tower of strength she was to me. We lost touch when Ken and I moved to Dorset after the war.

Everything hit the fan. Sleep was not on the night's agenda. Family and friends rallied around to prepare food and contact the family. I will be eternally grateful to the Somerfields (of the famous Somerfield Track 鈥� wartime emergency landing strip for planes), who lived in the Cedars - a large house opposite our cottage - for the use of their phone and car. They were charming and very helpful. I was amazed how things seemed to slot into place. My next door neighbour cycled home to get her wedding dress from her mother's house for me to wear. My uncle gave me his mother鈥檚 wedding ring - it fitted perfectly. The vicar, the Rev. Boylett-Stuart agreed to marry us in the morning at 9a.m but would have to have the special licence signed by Ken and myself that evening. Mr somerfield took me up to the vicarage in his car to sign the licence and did the same with Ken when he finally arrived at midnight. There was a wonderful feeling of togetherness.

Ken also had to tell his parents who lived in Finchley. The immediate reaction was 鈥溾�ut Ken, you can鈥檛.鈥� He was unable to say much because all military activities were secret at the time so he just replied 鈥淚've got to, mother.鈥� and allowed her to draw her own conclusions! After a long silence she replied 鈥淥h, I see鈥� and left it at that. At 4.30pm she received the telephone call, by 6pm a 'Freddie Griswood' wartime wedding cake and saugage rolls made from tinned Canadian tinned saugage meat were in the oven. Bless their hearts, they were wonderful.

Just after midnight, Ken arrived on a motorbike looking like something from out of space in his airborne jumping jacket, crash helmet and goggles. Knowing we had become engaged a fortnight previously, his CO took compassion on him as they were all due overseas again on a secret mission. He said to Ken: "Go and see your girl friend, Boy Martin," and jokingly "you might as well get married while you are about it". Little did he know! None of Ken鈥檚 fellow officers could come as they were confined to barracks.

At 9am, 8th May, we all arrived at the church except Ken鈥檚 parents. I walked up the aisle twice and no in-laws. It all seemed like a rehearsal to a wartime comedy. I was almost in tears when my poor parents鈥攊n-law arrived puffing and panting. They were carrying peonies from the garden, a large hat case containing the wedding cake and sausage rolls. They had walked all the way from Uxbridge as all buses had been cancelled due to victory celebrations.

So the ceremony duly took place and I was at last married to my beloved young lieutenant. There were no photos, but my father-in-law brought his cine camera and took 30 foot of 9mm film of us leaving the church. We went back to the cottage for a very short wedding breakfast. At 10.30 am, Ken left to return to his base with a box of wedding cake strapped to the back of his motor bike - with a roar and in a cloud of smoke. I was left feeling very bewildered.

At 7pm, Churchill broadcast to the nation proclaiming the war in Europe over. VE Day had come! It was just after this that my father-in-law suddenly jumped up and said 鈥淭hat鈥檚 Ken. I recognize the sound of his motorbike鈥�. I couldn鈥檛 believe it. When Ken returned to the mess, his CO laughed and said 鈥淗ow鈥檚 your girl? I suppose you got married.鈥� Ken replied 鈥淵es, I did as ordered, sir!鈥� No one believed him until his copy of the certificate was handed around the mess. After a few bottles and cake, the CO said 鈥� I can鈥檛 let you leave without one night together 鈥� go back to her, but be sure to report back here at midday sharp.鈥�

That was the first and last night together until well after V.J Day when Ken鈥檚 unit returned home from their secret mission. We spent our belated honeymoon together in Tintagel, Cornwall five months later.

Ken was in the 1st Airborne Division, 93rd Company, R.A.S.C and was one of the lucky ones to come home from Arnheim in 1944. He was demobilized in the rank of Captain in 1946.

At our Golden Wedding Celebration in 1995, my darling daughter stood up and said she had a surprise for me. She had tracked down my bridesmaid and long lost friend, Betty through an appeal in the Hillington Gazette. She read out a letter from her. We now keep in touch.

Postscript: The Secret Mission of the 1st Airborne Division, 93rd Company, R.A.S.C

The secret mission to which Ken, his fellow officers and men of the 1st Airborne Division were sent (and which accelerated the date of our wedding somehow) was firstly to round up Quisling鈥檚 deputy hiding somewhere in Norway. Secondly to release the Russian prisoners whom the Germans had captured in Norway, make sure they were O.K and arrange their return to Russia. The Russian troops had been imprisoned in appalling conditions and were infested with fleas and lice. Thirdly, they were to capture all German troops in Norway. This was quite a hair rising experience because these Germans had no idea that the war in Europe was over and that VE Day had been proclaimed. They were still in pockets in the mountains.

Sadly when our troops first arrived in Norway, they lost two lorries full of our men when the Germans rammed them off the side of the mountain roads. It was a sad and rude awakening for our troops and they had to be very aware of the situation in Norway until all German forces were captured and sent back to Germany.

After this task was accomplished, Ken and Jimmy Banks were ordered by their Commanding Officer, Major Tompkins, to take their unit on a training week in the mountains for their health and wellbeing. They had a great time after which they were allowed to swim in the fjord at Sandvika and made some good Norwegian friends. They came back to England looking fit after VJ Day - happy but also with a great feeling of loss of the chaps that never came back.

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